Sensory Images

Taste Touch Sight Sound Smell

The tang of the A cold breeze A bright sun The chirp of birds Freshly mowed
cold glass grass
lemonade

Sight - visual - appeals to the sense of seeing

Sound - auditory - appeals to the sense of hearing

Smell - olfactory - which appeals to the sense of smelling

Touch - tactile - which appeals to the sense of feeling

Taste - gustatory - which appeals to the sense of taste

Motion - which appeals to the sense of seeing except that the line contains another dimension- movement

Image - mental picture created in the mind of the reader as he/she assimilates the language of the author

Imagery - method of writing by which the author uses ordinary words to create an image

Answer the example exercise. Write the predominant sensory image found in each of the following.

____Sight_______1. full blast of moonlight

_______________2. chocolate, ice cream, and apple pie

_______________3. the squeak of spinning wheels

_______________4. the baby’s breath was warm on my face

_______________5. apple blossoms filled the air

Task 1: The Mirage

Writers paint word pictures or images that appeal to our senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch in
poetry composition. Look for the images in the excerpts below. Then, identify the line in the text that
appeals to the senses.

1.

“And the king thought there was under him, far from him, a hideous deep black water, and therein was
all manner of serpents and worms and wild beasts, foul and horrible. And suddenly the king thought that
the wheel turned upside-down, and he fell among the serpents, and every beast took him by a limb. And
then, the king cried as he lay in his bed, "Help! Help!"

Answers: _____________________________________________________________________________
2. Bedivere wanders through a forest until he comes to where a hermit is kneeling over a fresh grave. It is
the grave of a man brought to him at midnight by ladies in black. Whether or not the body is really that of
Arthur, no one knows. Some say Arthur still lives, and some say riot.

Answer: ______________________________________________________________________________

3. And when the host on both parties saw that sword drawn, then they blew beams, horns, and shouted
grimly. And so both hosts dressed them together. And King Arthur took his horse and said, “Alas, this
unhappy day!” and so rode to his party, and Sir Modred in like wise.

Answer: ______________________________________________________________________________

4. “And thus they fought all the long day, and never stopped till the noble knights were laid to the cold
earth. And ever they fought still it was near night, and then was there a hundred thousand laid dead upon
the down.”

Answer: ______________________________________________________________________________